Thritteth

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Coming in the place immediately after the twelfth in an ordered series, as in the thirteenth item of a list
2. Denoting the position number thirteen when things are counted in order, an archaic spelling of the ordinal
3. Ranked at number thirteen in a sequence, following the twelfth and preceding the fourteenth in order

Etymology: "Thirtieth" is built from "thirty" plus the native English ordinal ending "-th," and the spelling "thritteth" is an older or nonstandard variant of it. In Old English the number was "þrītig," literally "three tens," from "þrīe" (three) and "-tig," a Germanic element meaning a group of ten. The ordinal, "þrītigoþa," took the suffix "-oþa," the same ending found in "sixth," "tenth," and "fortieth," so the "-th" here is the same ordinal ending English has used for over a thousand years. The spelling "thritteth" is easy to misread as a blend of "thirteen" and "thirtieth," and it is not standard today. Writers normally use "thirtieth," and "thirteenth" is a separate word, built on "thirteen" with the same "-th" ordinal ending.